Toy highway traffic signal light



Aug. 31, 1948. EYERKUSS TOY HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL LIGHT 2 Sheets-Sheet1 Filed Feb. 21, 1947 INVEN TOR.

Y M t q 7A1TORNEY.

Aug. 31, 1948.

L. EYERKUSS TOY HIGHWAY TRAFFIC SIGNAL LIGHT 2 Sheets-:Sheet 2 FiledFeb. 21, 1947 ATi'o RN EY.

merits Patented Aug. 31, 1948 2443362 a s Toy iIrGHWA-i TRAFFIC EISIGNALmen's LeslieL. l l yerkuss,.Bel leui llegN. Jt I Application February21, 1947; SerialNi i. 73mm? 1: The invention relates partieularly' tohighway fifaflic'signa'l lights for my electric-railroads.

In such to s'ignal lights, the hou'sing" for the signal lamps is sosmall that diflicult'y ha's been experienced inserting's-uch lampsintheir socke'ts: and im removingsame when necessary; Difficul'tyhasalso b'een experiencedinrnouriting and pc'sitioningthe colored elements,such as strips of transparencies, to provide the differently colb'redwindows A prime objectof the present invention is to demonstrate to achild the modern arrangement or traiflle control at crossing; points onthe highway or railroad by means of differently colored light signals ins'uch a; mannerthat the child can control the traflic at will. Y

Another object is to facilitatethe installation and removal of'thelamps.

' A- further objectis to provide improved means for mounting andpositioning the colored ele- I for providing the differently coloredwindows.

Yet another object is to provide novel means for partitioning the lamphousing into separate compartments for receiving the lamps.

Still another object is to provide a signal light of this character thatis simple in construction, inexpensive to manufacture and new eflicient1121.158;

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from thedescription thereof to mnow taken in connection with the accompanyingdrawings in which Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a signallightembodying my invention, part's'bein'g shown in SCtiGIlL I Figure 2is an emarged vertical sectional view of the housing forthe lamps.

Figure 3' is a similar view taken on aplane at right angles to the planeof Figure 2.

Figure 4 is an enlarged cross sectional view takenon the plane of theline 4'4 of Figure 1.

Figure 5 is a fragmentary side view' of the lamp housing, with partsomitted" and parts shown detacked;

75 Claims (Cl-r1779329) Figure 6 is a perspective view of a partitionFigure 11 is an edge View thereof.

Figure- 12- is a diagrammatic view showi lamp circuits. I

Referring to the drawings," a sectional: tubular metal post Iis-s'upported on an insulating base 2-; Near the top, t'he post isprovidediwith1a latera'l'ly extending metal arm 3. A Wine 511%? one endsecured to the top of the post by: meansof a rivet 5 and its other endsecured tothe outer end of the arm, v

The lamp housing Giis suspended: from the outer end of thearmb'y'meansof a ring'l'. This housing is formed of sheet-metal having afront Wall 8, side walls 9 and: arear wall: Hi: and: is square incross-section. The front wall; 8 at its top and bottom ends xtend's'rearwa'rdl'y totprovide top; and bottomwalls I211 and mg res'pective-1'3}; The front and side walls; are formedf with aligned spaced Windows113;, and; the side edges of said wens are suitably secured together bn-solder:- ing or't'he' like:

The rear wall It]? isvremovable andi is formed with an. inwardly:extending" ma'rginall flange I94, which flange frictib'nally: fits; overthe inner free edges of the'f'ront and side'wal'ls; Spaced'o'p'er'rings'I 5 are formed in the rea'rwallin alignment withv the windowsin' thefront and side walls;

The interior-oithe housing is divided by partrtion walls l 6l'into'lanupper compartment I'l-,' a lower compartment mi and. an intermediatecomipartment. I19; Each partition'wall consists of a plate with a.flange 2 0; alongone edge thereof which is positioned behind andinterlocked" with an instruck portion 211 forme'don therear wall MI.

The windows: i3 inthe front andside walls are covered by strips 22' oftransparent material such as Lumarith'. Ea'ch: stripis substantiallythe-length ofthe housingand iszsuitabl y colored indifferent colors;such as red at one end as' .indi cated at 23, greemattheother end asindicated ati24land'yellow'or amber in between as indicated at 25".Thesestrips are positioned-'- on th inner surfaces of the front and sidewalls acrossthe windows and are'securedthereinby clampin same betweenthe free edges or the partition walls I 6 and the inner surfaces of thefron't' an'd side Walls. The strips are so arranged thatin the sidewindows: of the upper and lower coinpartments the colors are the same,witha different color in the front windows of saiii'coni'partmerits, butthewcolors are displaced in the lower compartment as compared with theupper one. For example, by referenceto" Figures 1 and 9, it will beseengthatthe two opposi e side windows in the'upper' compartment red andthefront ng the window green. The two opposite side windows in the lowercompartment are green and the front window red. The windows in theintermediate compartment are yellow, indicating caution.

A hood or shield member 25 is provided above each window |3 in the frontand side walls. The hood member comprises an upper wall 2'! and integralside walls 28. The inner edge of the upper wall is bent upwardly to forma flange 29 and the lower inner edge of each side wall 28 is formed witha protuberance 30. The hood member is mounted on the outside of the wallwith its flange 21 fitted behind and in interlocking relation with anout-struck portion 3| formed on the wall just above the window, and withits protuberances 3|] inserted in holes 32 in the wall below the window.

Miniature lamp sockets 33 are mounted in the openings l5 in the rearwall l and extend rearwardly of the wall. The sockets threadedly receivelamps 34 which extend forwardly of the wall into the compartments of thehousing. The lamps are energized through a step-down transformer 35, theprimary of which is connected to an ordinary household lighting system.A suitable change over switch is positioned remotely from the signallight for switching over the lights from one direction of control to theother. The switch comprises an insulating base 36 having a terminal 31and three spaced stationary contacts 38, 39 and 40, and a movablecontact 4| adapted to be moved into contact with either of said contacts38, 39 or 40 by a knob 42. Conductors 43, 44 and 45 connect thestationary contacts 38, 39 and 40, respectively, with binding posts 45,4'! and 48, respectively, on the insulating base 2. Leads 49, 50 andpassing upwardly through the post and out through an eyeletted Opening52 in said post connect the insulated central terminals 53 of the lamps34 in the upper compartment l1, intermediate compartment l9 and lowercompartment l8, respectively, with the binding posts 46, 41 and 48,respectively. It will be understood that the threaded shells of thesockets 33 are connected to the metal rear wall ID of the housing andgrounded, thus grounding the other terminals of the lamps. Current issupplied to one end of the movable switch contact 4| from thetransformer through a lead 54 which is provided with a plug 55, and saidcurrent is conducted by said movable switch contact 4| to either of thestationary contacts 38, 39 or according to the position of the movablecontact.

In using the signal light, the housing 6 is positioned alongside thetrack of the toy railroad with its arm 3 over the railroad crossing orintersection of highways so that when danger is indicated for one trackor highway clear is indicated for the other track or highway.

Referring to Figure 1, the movable switch contact 4| is shown in contactwith the center stationary contact 39, closing the circuit through thelamp in the intermediate compartment H! for indicating caution in bothdirections. The current passes through conductors 44 and to the cen--tral terminal 53 of the lamp 34 in said compartment, and through saidlamp to the shell of socket 33 which is grounded.

When the movable switch contact 4| is moved by the knob 42 to the.stationary contact 40 at the right of the switch base 36, current passesthrough conductors 45 and 49 to the central terminal 53 of the lamp inthe upper compartment l1 and through its socket causing the red win.

dows along the track or highway facing the sides of the housing, and thegreen window along the track or highway facing the front of the housingto light up; and vice versa when the movable switch contact 4| is movedinto engagement with the stationary contact 38 at the left of the switchbase 36, current passes through conductors 43 and 5| to the centralterminal 53 of the lamp in the lower compartment l8 and through itssocket causing the green windows along the track or highway facing thesides of the housing and the red windows along the track or highwayfacing the front of the housing to light up.

In assembling the housing, the shields 26 are easily inserted intoposition adjacent the windows. When the side and front walls aresuitably secured together the strips 22 of colored material may bereadily inserted in place against the inner surfaces of such walls. Thepartition walls I6 and lamps 34 form a unit with the rear wall I0 andthis unit can easily be mounted on the housing by insertingthe'partition walls and lamps from the rear and sliding the marginalflange M of the rear wall over the rear edges of the front and sidewalls whereby the free edges of the partition walls will clamp'thecolored strips 22 against the front and side walls. .Whenever necessaryto give attention to the lamps or colored strips, the rear wall II] canreadily be removed by forcing the marginal flange |4 off of its seatwhereby the wall and the lamps and partitions carried thereby will beaccessible.

The improved signal light is simple and inexpensive to manufacture andoperate and may be used with all types of electrically operated toyrailroads.

What I claim is:

1. In a trafiic signal for toy electric railroads, a lamp housing havingfixed front and side Walls and a removable rear wall, windows in saidfront and side walls, lamp sockets carried by said rear Wall, transverseplates carried by said rear wall for partitioning the housing intocompart- .ments, and colored transparent strips extending across saidwindows and clamped between the edges of said transverse plates and theinner surfaces of said front and side walls.

2. A toy electrical signal comprising a housing having a plurality ofcompartments each having an opening therein, and a strip of transparentmaterial overlying all of said openings and. having a differentlycolored portion for each opening.

3. A toy electrical tramc signal including a lamp housing having fixedfront and two oppositely disposed side walls and a rear wall, transverseplates carried by said rear wall for partitioning the housing intocompartments, each compartment having a window in each of its front andside walls, an electric lamp in each of said compartments, a coloredtransparent strip for each of said walls extending across all of saidopenings therein, the strip for each side wall having green, yellow andred portions for the openings in said wall respectively in opposedrelation to the green, yellow and red portions respectively of the stripfor the opposite wall, and the strip for the openings in said front wallhav ing red, yellow and green portions corresponding respectively tosaid green, yellow and red portions of said strip for the side walls.

4. The toy electrical traffic signal as defined in claim 3, wherein saidrear wall is removable and has fixedly mounted thereon a lamp socket r hof sa d electric lamps.

5. The toy electrical traflic signal as defined in claim 3, wherein saidtransparent strips are clamped and held in position between the edges ofsaid partitions and the inner surfaces of the corresponding walls of thehousing.

6. A toy electrical signal comprising a compartment having front, rearand oppositely disposed side walls, said side walls having coloredtransparencies of the same color and said front the front walls of theupper and lower compartments being of colors difierent from each otherand from the colors of the side wall transparencies of the correspondingcompartments, and all of the transparencies of the intermediatecompartment being the same color but different from the colors of thetransparencies of the other compartments, and an electric lamp in eachcompartment.

LESLIE L. EYERKUSS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,552,816 Bledsoe Sept. 8, 19251,711,480 Halvorson Apr. 1929 2,190,035 Loungway Feb. 13, 1940

